Pattern Recognition

In this paper we present SIMBA, a content based image retrieval system performing queries based on image appearance. We consider absolute object positions irrelevant for image similarity here and therefore propose to use invariant features. Based on a general construction method (integration over the transformation group), we derive invariant feature histograms that catch different cues of image content: features that are strongly influenced by color and textural features that are robust to illumination changes. By a weighted combination of these features the user can adapt the similarity measure according to his needs, thus improving the retrieval results considerably. The feature extraction does not require any manual interaction, so that it might be used for fully automatic annotation in heavily fluctuating image databases.